With a staggering 17 million new instances of malware recorded every month, organisations can’t rely on detecting malicious code by its digital signature. Instead, as malware becomes more numerous, dangerous, and difficult to detect, security teams must employ other effective tools and strategies to identify and contain harmful software and files. Fortunately, a sandbox environment is one such solution.
The question is, however, what is a sandbox environment, and how can it help protect your company’s IT infrastructure from malicious code and exploitable software vulnerabilities? In this post, we address these questions and explain the benefits of a sandbox environment and how they work.
What is a sandbox environment, and how do they work?
A sandbox environment is an isolated testing environment that enables users within an organisation to open files, run software, or execute code without causing any adverse effects on their IT infrastructure.
The name “sandbox” comes from the concept of a sandbox, or sandpit, where children can play, create, and destroy with abandon without impacting the area surrounding them. Similarly, a sandbox offers a controlled environment where security teams can execute (or “detonate”) applications, scripts, and files without potentially compromising the rest of your network.
Subsequently, if the code displays malicious or otherwise unconventional characteristics, it won’t have the ability to corrupt anything outside of the contained sandbox environment. Conversely, without sandboxing, an executed file or script could gain unlimited access to all your data, assets, and resources – including your critical infrastructure.
Now, although how a sandbox functions, in particular, depends on its purpose, they generally work by utilising a virtual machine: software that emulates a piece of hardware, whether a workstation, mobile device or server. A virtual machine is an isolated application with its own contained operating system (OS) and simulated, or “virtualised”, resources like CPU, memory, and storage. The virtual machine mimics the specific environment, such as the OS, that the code expects to come into contact with, which ensures accurate conditions for analysis.
Most importantly, however, this virtual environment restricts the software’s access to network resources to ensure its isolation. To this end, a sandbox environment may exist on its own contained network segment – or even have its own router and internet connection.
What is a sandbox environment used for?
Sandbox environments have two main applications: cybersecurity and as a method of maintaining secure and robust software development practices. Let’s delve into each in greater detail.
Cybersecurity
With instances of malware growing in both number and sophistication, it’s increasingly difficult for anti-malware solutions to prevent them from infecting IT infrastructure. By using a sandbox to contain suspicious or unfamiliar software and files, companies benefit from an extra line of defence against cyber threats. Sandbox environments are especially effective at protecting against zero-day vulnerabilities, i.e., newly-discovered malware designed to exploit previously unknown security flaws in software.
Because a sandbox environment is in an isolated virtual space with no access to network resources or data, security teams can safely execute suspicious code, observe its behaviour, determine if it’s malicious, and learn more about how it functions.
Common signs that the code is likely malicious include:
- Attempting to replicate itself
- Encrypting any test data it’s presented with
- Attempting to download additional code or files
- Trying to connect to a command-and-control server
Additionally, when used for cybersecurity purposes, it’s particularly crucial that a sandbox environment is properly isolated and secured, as some malware will actively look for vulnerabilities in the sandbox itself.
Software development
Another widespread and effective use of sandboxing is for developers to test code or a software update before deploying it across the network. By using a sandbox environment for testing, development teams can better ensure that any bugs, security flaws, or any other issues are discovered before the software is rolled out.
Creating an effective sandbox environment for testing applications requires development teams to establish three code deployment environments: development, staging, and production.
- Development environment: where developers code the software
- Staging environment: a mirror of the production environment, in which developers deploy and configure the code as with production – but with test data
- Production environment: where the software’s final, or live, version is deployed and hosted.
By testing applications and patches separately from the final production environment, your organisation will avoid exposing your infrastructure to buggy or exploitable code. Additionally, thoroughly testing updates in a staging environment helps DevOps teams ensure they don’t unintentionally corrupt working versions of an application.
How do you set up a sandbox environment?
You can set up a sandbox environment by following the steps below.
- Establish what the sandbox will be used for: this will determine the best type of virtual machine to use, the OS to install, and the resources you need to virtualise.
- Install the virtual machine that will provide the secure, contained environment for the sandbox.
- Allocate the necessary virtualised resources to the sandbox environment, i.e., CPU, RAM storage capacity, etc.
- Install the appropriate OS in the virtual machine.
- Transfer test data for the application, code, or file you plan to observe to act upon.
Alternatively, you can install a ready-made sandbox solution and configure it to suit your testing and observation purposes.
5 key benefits of using a sandbox environment
Enhanced cybersecurity
The first, and perhaps most significant, benefit of sandbox environments is that they provide a separate, secure environment to run untrusted and potentially dangerous code. Whether suspected malware or newly deployed software, executing it in a sandbox away from network resources reduces cyber risk and enhances your company’s cybersecurity posture. Better still, several applications, including browsers, anti-malware, email clients, and firewalls, have built-in sandboxes, each adding an extra layer of defence against cyber threats.
Proactive Threat Analysis
Sandboxes further allow companies to reduce their cyber risk exposure by allowing for proactive threat assessment. By containing and observing suspected malicious applications and code, security teams better understand emerging cyber threats and can implement the appropriate mitigation measures. Ultimately, increasing their threat intelligence enables companies to gain a clearer picture of the cyber threats they face, create more accurate cyber risk models, and develop more effective cybersecurity strategies.
Increased data protection and privacy
By preventing untrusted applications and files from accessing network resources, sandboxing also protects sensitive data that your company processes and stores. Additionally, this helps achieve compliance with various regional and industry data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.
Encourages robust software development and testing practices
By requiring separate development, staging, and production (live) environments, sandboxing results in more secure and robust application development. Additionally, if migrating to a new IT ecosystem, e.g., a cloud computing environment, sandboxing allows you to test the behaviour and performance of legacy applications to determine any security or compatibility issues.
Decreased Costs
With the average cost of a data breach being $4.45 million, preventing the spread of malware through sandboxing can save your organisation significant amounts of money over time. Similarly, testing your bespoke software in a sandbox environment before deploying is more cost-effective when compared to attempting to fix bugs and glitches post-deployment.
How Riskxchange can help with setting up sandbox environments
RiskXchange can show you how to best utilise sandboxing as part of your overall cyber risk mitigation strategy. We’ll also advise you on configuring your sandbox environments to best suit your cybersecurity needs and ensure complete isolation from your network resources.
Contact us to set up your free trial of the RiskXchange Platform.
What is a sandbox environment FAQs
What is the difference between a sandbox and a virtual machine?
A virtual machine is a program that mimics a computer and allows it to run on a host machine with its own set of simulated resources. Conversely, a sandbox is an isolated environment that runs on a virtual machine to isolate potentially malicious code. Put another way, sandboxing is just one application of a virtual machine – and not all virtual machines are sandboxes.
What are the disadvantages of a sandbox environment?
The main disadvantage of a sandbox environment is that some malware can still evade detection. As sandboxing became more widespread, hackers started developing malicious code that can detect whether it’s in a virtual environment and appear benign until it’s transferred to an actual device – or that can be set to execute at a future time.
Another drawback of sandboxing is that running all unfamiliar or suspicious files through them can consume a lot of time and resources.